User:Lucasvb/Majority and consensus under ordinal and cardinal perspectives: Difference between revisions
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(Created page with "<div style="max-width: 80em"> The notion of a '''''majority''''' is often claimed to be a defining trait of democracy and voting, if not ''the'' main trait. However, when the...") |
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Ordinal voting methods all appeal to "majority rule" in one form or another. But given the fundamental limitations of the ordinal "majority", which is dominated by the candidates, not the voters, one should consider alternative justifications for this criterion. |
Ordinal voting methods all appeal to "majority rule" in one form or another. But given the fundamental limitations of the ordinal "majority", which is dominated by the candidates, not the voters, one should consider alternative justifications for this criterion. |
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== Cardinalism and the "majority of |
== Cardinalism and the "majority of consensus" == |
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As we have seen, the notion of a "majority" as an inherent property of the voters is hard to establish using the ordinal formalism. The candidates have too much influence in what it actually conveys. |
As we have seen, the notion of a "majority" as an inherent property of the voters is hard to establish using the ordinal formalism. The candidates have too much influence in what it actually conveys. |
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Under a cardinal framework, however, the concept is more subtle. Taking the consensus as the blueprint of voter cohesion, we can informally define a "'''''majority of consensus'''''" as the group of 50%+1 voters which lie closest to '''''all''''' of the existing |
Under a cardinal framework, however, the concept is more subtle. Taking the consensus as the blueprint of voter cohesion, we can informally define a "'''''majority of consensus'''''" as the group of 50%+1 voters which lie closest to '''''all''''' of the existing consensuses. |
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A more natural notion of majority can be defined in terms of the spatial model of voters. |
A more natural notion of majority can be defined in terms of the spatial model of voters. |
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